Team Pun-Chant are a team from the United Kingdom which competed exclusively in BattleBots World Championship IV with their heavyweight entry Nelly the Ellybot.
The team also attempted to compete in World Championship V, but were not able to travel due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite applying for the 2021 season, the team wasn't selected for the season and even if they had been, they would've been forced to withdraw from the competition anyway due to issues concerning NIE Visas which affected all the UK teams.
Team Pun-Chant in 2021.
Prior to its televised debut, a featherweight version of Nelly the Ellybot was built and fought in the 2018 King of Bots UK Featherweight Championships, reaching the Top 20 of the main championship before withdrawing with electrical issues.[1]
Following a second successive rejection, the team officially retired the heavyweight version of Nelly the Ellybot, announcing its sale on July 31, 2022. This confirmed that it would not be entering any future BattleBots competitions as the team turned their attention towards its featherweight counterpart.[2] The robot was ultimately purchased by the US-based team Heavy Metal Robotics, led by YouTube content creator Mystrsyko2, who also owns Super Collider.
Team Members[]
Sarah Malyan[]
Founder of Team Pun-Chant, Sarah Malyan co-hosted both seasons of the UK web-series Bugglebots. She was part of the team that applied for Series 9 of Robot Wars with Nelly the Ellybot, but withdrew for unknown reasons. Sarah did, however, ultimately compete with HIGH-5, but fell in the first round. She remains captain of the team in the many live events that followed the 2019 BattleBots season.
Gus Collier[]
Present on the team for their only BattleBots season to date, Gus Collier left the team in 2020 and intended to join Team OuiOui as part of Pardon My French for the 2021 season. Issues relating to UK builders being unable to fly over to the United States prevented Gus and other team members from attending filming, which affected their season as a whole. On the UK scene, he is best known for his beetleweights Bad Futhermucker and Sawcon. In 2022, he joined Team Small Robots and Banshee for World Championship VII.
Niels van der Berg[]
Niels van der Berg also appeared on Bugglebots, but as a competitor with his beetleweight grabber OMG!, as well as competing in Robot Wars: World Series specials as part of Team Tie-Rip and Team KODOX with THE BASH and Tough as Nails respectively. Both of these Dutch teams previously formed part of 2018 season BattleBots entry Reality, though Niels van der Berg was not a part of that team.
Charlie Dangerfield[]
Team member Charlie Dangerfield also has experience with insect-class robots, having captained The Berg and its successor 2 Berg 2 Furious in Bugglebots. He intended to attend filming for World Championship VI as part of Team Jäger, but like Gus Collier, was unable to legally fly to Las Vegas alongside the other UK-based members of their team.
Shane Lale[]
A veteran of the UK scene, team member Shane Lale fought as part of Team Tilly and their Robot Wars entry Meggamouse. He was then unsuccessful in qualifying for the following series with Dizzy Tilly, but despite a limited televised cameo, he has fought in an abundance of UK live events over the years from insectweight to heavyweight, even driving Iron Awe 6 to UK Championship glory. Shane Lale fought in the Chinese television show Clash Bots with Tilly and the Shanghai-based event Fighting My Bots with Red Hot Tilly Pecker. He also served one of two referees (alongside Tim Rackley of Monsoon and Ragnarök) for Bugglebots. Since then, Shane Lale has built a featherweight robot inspired by Whiplash called Drive By, and a beetleweight homage to End Game named End Boss. With Team Tilly, he applied for the 2021 season of BattleBots with Templar, but was not successful.
For more on Team Tilly, see here.
Robert Karpinski[]
Joining the team ahead of their 2020 season application, Robert Karpinski previously applied for the 2019 season of BattleBots with Deadlock alongside fellow UK builders Mark Mellors and Rob Berwick. Having been forced to withdraw Deadlock from Series 10 of Robot Wars, he is perhaps best known for his robots named after British biscuits such as Bourbon, Jammy Dodger and most recently, Digestive.
Reira Granger[]
Having entered beetleweight horizontal spinner Splodeyboi into both series of Bugglebots, Reira Granger also joined the team ahead of their 2020 season application. She has built a 30lb replica of Robot Wars competitor Napalm, named Smell of Napalm, which competes as well as being seen as a display piece. She has also built the front-hinged flipper Metis, which has achieved Top 16 finishes in beetleweight events.
Robots[]
| Name | Weight Class | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Nelly the Ellybot | Heavyweight | World Championship IV World Championship V (Withdrew) World Championship VI (Not selected) World Championship VII (Not selected) |
Win/Loss Record[]
- Wins: 1
- Losses: 2